The final trophy event of the 2017 Fall Poker Open concluded in the early hours of Thanksgiving Day with the final four players agreeing on adjusted payouts, concluding the FPO series and sending the last players home to enjoy their holiday.

Darren Elias – 1st Place – 2017 Fall Poker Open Championship

The highlight of the series was the $2500+$200 Championship event and it was Darren Elias who once again etched his name in the poker history books. The 2014 WPT Borgata Poker Open Champion won the event along with more than $293,000, becoming only the fourth player in history to win two Borgata Open Championships. His journey was not an easy one, although he held the chip lead wire-to-wire on Day 4 after building a huge lead late on Day 3. He had 2014 WPT World Champion Keven Stammen on his right at the final table, but Keven was never able to gain any traction and departed in 3rd place.

Elias’ heads-up battle with Mark Kaganovsky began with a 2.5:1 chip lead and it looked like it would be a quick ending, but Kaganovsky, who is a Hedge Fund Trader, proved he knows a little something about poker as well. They battled for nearly three hours with Kaganovsky pulling close to even in chips. Experience won out, however, and Darren Elias took home his second Borgata Open Championship trophy. This score will push his career earnings up to $5.2 million.

The Ladies did not make a very strong showing during this series and it wasn’t until the final event that we had a female win an event. Katie Stone Cappuccio took 1st place in the Deepest Stack with Jaye Morris taking 2nd and the trophy, in an adjusted payout agreement. This is the first time in recent memory when we had two Ladies finish in the top two spots.

John Lytle – 1st Place – 2017 FPO Kickoff

The Kickoff event was won by John Lytle, who outlasted a field of 1,618 entrants to claim 1st place and $114,833 (in a 4-way adjusted payout agreement). That was John’s 2nd Borgata Open trophy and was a nice payday for the owner of a tree service who was on the bench all summer, rehabbing a broken leg.

A couple of other high points during this series was BorgataPoker.com Ambassador Michael Gagliano winning the SixMax NLH event and Zhaoxing Wang winning his 4th Borgata Open title in less than 13 months. All guarantees were covered and more than $3.5 million was paid out in prize money in these 19 main events alone, not including satellites and secondary events. A complete list of main event winners is below.

(*AP indicates Adjusted Payouts)

On behalf of Borgata Poker Staff and bloggers Tim Kelliher, Chris Murray, and myself, thank you to all the players who participated and make Borgata tournament poker great. And thank you to the staff for the best-run events on the east coast!